


Room enough for two

by andonewillbringhisfall



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell, Simon Snow & Related Fandoms
Genre: M/M, Sharing a Bed, don't you just love this trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 22:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14294649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andonewillbringhisfall/pseuds/andonewillbringhisfall
Summary: AU where there is only one bed





	Room enough for two

**Author's Note:**

> Old fic from my Tumblr It was based on a prompt that went through the shittycarryonaus blog on Tumblr at some point.

SIMON:

 

It was fine in first year.

I mean, it was never really  _fine,_ Baz hated me from the moment we met, and now I was expected to spend the next eight years sharing a bed with him. Turns out there was a downside to having the biggest room in Mummers House, since it wasn’t originally supposed to be for students and apparently no-one had thought to bring in two separate beds, and no matter how much I bugged the Mage, it never seemed to get done. Eventually I just accepted it.

Anyway. It was fine in first year. We were eleven years old and it was a huge double bed. We’d curl up on opposite sides with our backs to each other, pretending the other one wasn’t there. Once we stopped fighting over it and Baz stopped trying to intimidate me into sleeping on the floor, it was easy enough to get used to it.

 

BAZ:

 

I hated Simon Snow the moment I met him. I hated him more after spending a year sharing a bed with him. He wasn’t a quiet sleeper, snuffling and snoring and sometimes flinging his limbs out in random directions, and I barely got any sleep. I could never quite relax with him so close, but he never seemed to have a problem falling asleep.

Funny, then, that the summer before second year, my own bed seemed so huge and lonely. I was almost relieved to go back to our room at Watford, and sleep in the same bed as Simon Snow again.

 

SIMON:

 

Baz had his growth spurt in third year.

‘You’re taking up more than your fair share of the bed,’ I’d whine, almost every night.

‘I’m taller than you,’ he’d snap. ‘I need more space. At least I don’t toss and turn in my sleep. You woke me up four times last night.’

‘Well, I don’t hog the blankets,’ I shot back.

‘Maybe you wouldn’t need the blankets if you stopped opening the bloody window.’

 

BAZ:

 

I stayed in the Catacombs a lot in fourth year.

How was I supposed to hide the fact that I was a vampire, that I spent my nights hunting rats, that I was a monster who had to take other lives in order to survive, from the boy I shared a bed with? Especially when he already hated me and thought I was out to get him (which I was, but that’s not the point). I was terrified that he would smell it on me, or he’d notice my unusual behaviour, or there’d be bloodstains on my shirts, but I was careful and Snow was oblivious as always.

He usually noticed when I snuck out. ‘Where are you going?’ he’d say, and sometimes his voice would be laced with suspicion, but other times it was bleary with sleep.

The times when he was still half-asleep, his voice would be soft and lazy and he’d murmur, ‘come back to bed, Baz,’ and it always made me feel strange. Like I was seeing into an alternate universe, and I liked it there, but I would never be allowed to stay.

 

SIMON:

 

We used to fight about it all the time. Neither of us ever really expected the other to give in.

‘I’m sick of you, Snow. Why don’t you sleep on the floor?’ he’d snarl. ‘It’s where you belong.’

Or, ‘You keep kicking me in your sleep, Snow, and if you can’t control that it’s your own fault. If I don’t get any sleep you’ll be the one I take it out on, so I suggest you sleep on the ground.’

I’d meet his stare defiantly and crawl under the covers. ‘If it bothers you so much,  _you_  should sleep on the floor.’

That was the rule of our existence; we both had to push each other as hard as we could, and neither of us was ever allowed to give an inch. So we both knew that no matter how much we wound each other up, we’d always both end up in the bed. Doing anything else would have been like giving up, like losing.

So I was completely stumped when one day, in fifth year, I woke up to find Baz curled up on the floor in the corner of the room, a blanket clutched tightly to his chest.

 

BAZ:

 

‘I’ll sleep on the floor, if it bothers you so much,’ Snow would say, hurt creeping into his voice. ‘We can take turns.’

He would never understand.

I couldn’t sleep next to him anymore. We weren’t kids anymore; there wasn’t room to shuffle to the very edges of the bed and pretend he wasn’t there. I could feel his warmth every time he lay beside me, I could smell his woodsy, smoky scent, and if he shifted too far I’d feel his bare skin pressed against the fabric of my shirt –

It was too much.

By the end of sixth year, he stopped offering to switch places. He stuck to his side of the bed, as though he was leaving me the option of coming back, if I wanted.

I was tempted. I could roll over and pull my arms around him and pretend I’d been asleep. I could comfort him in his nightmares. I could bite him. Or kiss him.

I couldn’t do any of those things. So I stayed on the cold floor. If Snow felt guilty about that, it was his own fucking problem.

 

SIMON:

 

In seventh year, I started sleeping on the floor too. Just to spite him, I think. I’m not really sure why.

‘Snow, this is moronic. There’s a perfectly good bed and now we’re both sleeping on the floor?’

I shrugged and peered out of my blanket cocoon. ‘I’ll go back to the bed if you do.’

I wasn’t sure why I cared. It was more that I was hurt, I think. The floor was pretty fucking uncomfortable, I now discovered, and it was cold, and Baz was always complaining about the cold. Did he really hate me that much?

‘Leave me alone, Snow,’ he muttered. ‘It’s bad enough sharing a room with you. I’m not sharing a bed with you.’

‘You used to,’ I said. We were curled up in opposite corners, glaring at each other. He was right; it was completely moronic. ‘What changed?’

‘Nothing changed,’ Baz spat back at me. ‘I just can’t stand the sight of you.’

‘Fine,’ I mumbled (and there it was again, that ache in my chest), and pulled the blanket up over my eyes.

 

BAZ:

 

He gave up after a week, and went back to the bed.

I hated that I hoped he was comfortable.

In eighth year, he changed tactics.

It was a particularly cold night. Snow was falling outside the window, and even Snow (my Snow) had the sense to keep it firmly shut. I was curled up and shivering violently under my blanket.

‘Baz… Baz.’ His voice snapped me out of my trance in the middle of the night. My teeth were chattering and there was no point in pretending to be asleep, but I stayed facing the wall.

‘Baz, this is fucking stupid,’ he growled. ‘Just come to bed.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Baz.’

‘We’ve had this conversation before.’

‘You’ll freeze to death.’

‘Wouldn’t you like that.’

He sighed loudly. ‘I’m serious.’

‘So am I.’

‘Baz…’

‘ **You’re getting warmer** ,’ I mumbled, and felt the blanket heat up around me. I sighed quietly. (So warm.) ‘Happy now?’

‘Yeah, I guess.’ He was quiet for a moment, and then I heard the sound of his feet hitting the ground. ‘Actually, you know what? No. I’m not happy. I’m really fucking pissed off that you hate me so much that you insist on sleeping on the ground every single night. You’re being a git. I know we’re enemies, but this is just stupid.’

I rolled my eyes and huddled closer to the wall. ‘Sorry I’ve offended you. Can I go to sleep now?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘No, I will come over there and snuggle you until you agree to sleep in the bed. Seriously. I’ll sleep on the floor if you want, and we can take turns, like I said ages ago, but you’re not sleeping on the ground every night.’

I said nothing.

I wanted nothing more than for Simon Snow to come over here and snuggle me.

It probably wasn’t going to happen.

‘Baz? You hear me?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I’m serious.’

‘I can’t believe you’re threatening to snuggle me, Snow. Is that how you always defeat your enemies? Will you cuddle the Humdrum?’

I turned around so I could see him. He was at the foot of the bed, looking like he wasn’t sure if he should come any closer.

I could tell he was rolling his eyes. ‘No. Just you.’ And then he was lying stretched out in front of me.

This close I could see the blue of his eyes, even in the darkness. I could see every mole on his face.

Too close. I could feel his breath on my face. He was taking quick, sharp breaths, and I could almost feel the magic tingling on his skin, and he was making no move to follow through on his ridiculous threat.

Too close.

I don’t know if I kissed him, or if he kissed me, or if we were already lying so close together that there wasn’t any difference between the two. I leaned in just a fraction, and Snow must have done the same, and suddenly I felt warm lips on mine, and I stopped thinking.

He pulled away and kissed me again, once, twice, three times, and then he was holding my face with both hands, and then he was gone.

He scrambled back and jumped to his feet, backing away.

‘Sorry. Sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.’

I sat up slowly. I felt giddy, and I was shivering, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

‘Shit, I swear I wasn’t planning on doing that. I swear. I’m sorry,’ he said, wringing his hands.

‘Then why did you?’ I asked.

‘Because. Because I – I wanted to. I always want to. But I wasn’t actually going to do it. I know you hate me.’

‘And you don’t hate me?’ I said slowly.

He was staring at the floor. Expecting me to reject him. ‘No. I should. But I really, really don’t.’

I got up, taking my blanket with me and laying it back out on the bed.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I’ll come back to the bed.’

He nodded, reaching for his blanket. ‘Okay. I can sleep on the floor.’

‘Don’t be a git, Snow,’ I said. ‘This bed is big enough for two people.’

He drew in a sharp breath. ‘Um – are you – do you –’

‘Come over here and kiss me again.’


End file.
